Naruto's Kanto Adventures
by NeolithicMonarch
Summary: Sealing the most delicate art in the shinobi world and for some reason, Jiraiya is trying to teach it to Naruto. Of course, this being Naruto, he messes it up. How will Naruto fare in this new world, will he fail, or will he thrive. Naruto x Pokemon
1. Chapter 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Naruto's Kanto Adventures-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Talking"

_'Thinking'_

**"Demon Talking"**

_**'Demon Thinking"**_

--(Scene Change)--

**A/N: For some reason, I've got a Naruto x Pokemon xover stuck in my head. I'm not really sure why, but I've got the idea, might as well put it on paper. I don't know everything about Pokemon, so please don't be to harsh if and when I screw something up. This should be an...interesting ride though. If Naruto seems a bit...off in this story its because of this. In this story, Naruto still wants to be Hokage because he wants people to recognize him, his meeting with Haku never happened here. He really only went after Sasuke because he thought people would love him if he brought back the last Uchiha. Because of this, there is very little actually tying him to the leaf village, so leaving it doesn't really effect him as much as it would canon Naruto. I know its another "Naruto gets transported to a new dimension" but its really the only decent way I can get him in the Pokemon world. This story will be more based upon the anime than the games. Naruto is thirteen in this story. As for a time-line, ummm...Ash should be in Johto, or maybe early on in Hoenn. It doesn't really matter, Naruto will be on a separate adventure from him.**

--

Chapter 1 : Sealing for Dummies...FAIL!

--

Sealing was the most delicate art in the shinobi world. It was more destructive then ninjutsu, required more control and patience than genjutsu, and was more draining then taijutsu. Only a select few were were able to learn even the basics, and only a fraction of a fraction of those went on to become sealing masters.

Of course, as luck would have it, Jiraya was such a seal master, and his current student was an idiot who was "attempting" to learn his craft. The one unfortunate thing however, was that fact that Jiraiya often mistook his current student for said students father. While as noble and powerful a person the young man was, he just didn't posses the natural inclination towards sealing that his father did...or the natural intelligence his father had as well.

The white haired sage gave a sigh as he looked at his student disregard the books he tasked him to read. Oh boy, did he feel a headache coming on.

"What do you think you're doing brat?!" he yelled at his blond student in annoyance. "Get back to those books!"

"But Ero-Sennin" he heard his student whine. "Reading is for losers, not future Hokage's!" he finished, yelling and punching the air as he said "Hokage"

Jiraiya could only smack his face as he heard this. It was three months after they had departed Konoha to train. He had been shocked to discover the brat didn't know the so called "secret" to the Shadow Clone jutsu. _'What the hell was Kakashi thinking?_' he thought to himself with a frown. _'The kids skills were terrible, with the benefits of Shadow Clones, he wouldn't have had to rely on luck to stay alive so far. The last three months or so we've had to be spend on him relearning the basics. What a waste of time.'_

"Oi brat" he said, watching his student using a sealing brush and a scroll. "What do you think your doing?"

"Making a seal, are you THAT senile you can't see anymore Ero-Sennin?" the blond asked with a snort and a not so subtle roll of his eyes.

"Don't call me that!" Jiraiya exclaimed. "And don't joke around, you refuse to read those books, where would you learned the make a seal idiot?" he asked mockingly.

"I stole that scroll of cool seals you have in your pocket" Naruto said carelessly, continuing to write on his scroll, not bothering to see the ashen face of his mentor. "I can't believe you wanted me to learn that boring stuff when you had all those cool seals with you." he said, shooting a quick glare at the sage before returning to his work. "When I finish this, I'll be one step closer to becoming Hokage" he exclaimed.

Jiraiya's face was white in shock and horror. _'Those were Minato's notes on his projects that failed_' he thought to himself dread flooding into his body. '_How did he get those away from me?'_

"Naruto" he said, how voice as serious as it had even been in his entire life. "Put down that brush and come here RIGHT NOW!" he said, yelling the last bit out.

"Yeah right" Naruto said, not hearing (or maybe ignoring) his teachers horror. "I just need to add some chakra and it will be done!" he yelled in glee as he pumped as much of his energy into it as he could.

"NARUTO NO!" Jiraiya yelled as he say the array light up in a brilliant flash of blue.

Chaos was the only word that could describe the seen. Chakra, an enormous amount of unstable chakra flooded into the area. There was no being in the entire elemental nations that didn't not sense it. Around the scroll, bolts of blue light shot out, incinerating everything that fell into hits path.

"Gah" the sage yelled as he narrowly dodged a beam of blue light, watching horror at his destroyed a tree behind him. "I'm sorry Naruto" he muttered, before preforming a set of hand signs and vanishing in a puff of smoke before another bolt of light hit where he was previously standing. The last thing he heard before he fled was Naruto's screams of agony.

Several hours later, Jiraiya returned to the scene, which had finally settled down, to find a crater a hundred meters wide and fifty meters deep. The only thing left was a bloodied, burned, piece of an orange jumpsuit.

--(Who knows where)--

"This didn't go like I planned" Naruto muttered, finding himself in front in the gates in his mind that held the great Kyuubi no Kitsune.

**"Ya Think?"** a booming, sarcastic voice spoke out from the gates.

"No need to be annoying" Naruto said with a frown looking at the huge fox on a cage. "I'm still trying to figure out what I did wrong."

**"Being born was what you did wrong!**" the deeo voice snarled in rage. ** "You tried to create a seal without any knowledge of them you nimrod. Seals are manifestations of the power of the gods themselves, even I wouldn't be so bold to dabble in them as nonchalantly as you just did."**

"Errr...opps?" Naruto offered sheepishly. "It can't have all that bad though, that seal was made the the Yondaime" he said, cheering up as he mentioned his idol.

The gigantic fox slammed one of its paws into its head. ** "You really are mentally challenged"** it said, ignoring the indignant cries of its container. **"Do you even know what that seal was?"** it asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Errr...something about a prototype Hiraishin seal" Naruto said, scratching his head. "So what, it didn't work, I'll just have to deal with Ero-Sennin later" he said, sighing as he thought about his teacher and the tongue lashing he was going to receive.

**"YOU TRULY ARE A MORON OF EPIC PROPORTIONS!**" the fox bellowed, looking at the human in front of it in disgust. **"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT SEAL DID TO YOU BRAT!?"**

"Ummm...It hurt?" Naruto asked, shrugging his shoulders. "I mean, the pain had noting compared to chidori, what's the worst that could have happened?"

**"That seal"** the fox forced out through gritted teeth. **"Was meant to breach the space time continuum in order to allow for instantaneous movement."** it explained, trying to be civil. For some reason his fate was tied together with the brats, if nothing else, the Kyuubi no Kitsune was good at one thing, staying alive.

"Eh?" Naruto said, tilting his head on confusion. "What does that mean you dumb fox?" he said, confused.

**"It means"** the fox said, eye twitching. ** "that you used an incomplete, space time seal, can you guess what happened next?"** he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Naruto frowned as he recalled the first thing Jiraiya said about sealing. "Seals are dangerous" he remembered, for once in his life listening carefully. "A misused seal can cause more destruction than even the most formidable ninjutsu. Remember this Naruto, never, ever mess with seals you have no knowledge of. If you do, there is a good change they will explode, and you will go along with it."

"Ummm...boom" Naruto offered weakly, chuckling slightly trying to hide his horror.

The fox blinked once, twice, and let out a roar of laughter. **"Boom?"** it said, still laughing. **"Not boom brat, that makes it sound like one of those pitiful exploding tags you ninja use. What you did was cause the prototype seal to immediately drain all of my chakra, which was then converted to human chakra, which then incinerated your chakra coils. Of course, with my near infinite chakra confined to an infinitely small area that is the sealing matrix, a quantum singularity was opened which immediacy sucked you in and then propelled all of the excess chakra into the surrounding area." it explained. "It was only the functional part of the seal you created that stopped your body from ripping into a billion pieces."**

"Errr...what?" Naruto asked, his eyes holding a confused look.

The fox growled, restraining himself from trying to kill the blond fleshbag. ** "It means"** it said slowly and deliberately. **"That by stupidly using an untested seal, you broke space-time and transported yourself to god knows where."**

"Ohhhh...okay" Naruto said, finally understanding. "So where could I be? It better not be in Iwa, because Ero-Sennin said they would want to kill be for some reason."

**"GAH!"** the fos screamed, its patience gone. **"NO YOU BRAT, it means your stupidity has landed you a new dimension."**

"A new dimension?" Naruto asked, a bit weary from the foxes ourburst. "What is a dimension?"

The fox took a deep breath and calmed down a bit. It was being a tad unfair, the ninja world knew next to nothing about the various dimension, hell it didn't know a whole lot about them. The knowledge he had came from the sage of the six paths all those years ago.

**"A different dimension is basically a universe that is different from your own. Imagine that every choice and action that ever could have happened has its own version of reality. For example, lets say there is a universe where you chose to kill that Uchiha instead of aiming to just scratch his headband, that would be one example. Then again, there could be a reality where chakra itself never existed, there are infinite possibilities."**

After this rather...basic description, Naruto's eyes were wide. "So I'm on one of these...alternate realities?" he asked, his mouth hanging open in shock.

**"Now he gets it"** the fox muttered under its breath, to faint for the human to hear it. **"Yup"** it said louder. **"I don't know where you are, but I can tell you this, this world is nothing like ours, the energy I can feel is very...strange."**

"So..." Naruto trailed off, looking nervous "How do I get back?" he asked.

**"You don't"** the fox said simply, taking pleasure in the look of shock taking over the humans face. It wasn't often he could do something to get back at the brat, it was rather...enjoyable.

"WHAT?!" Naruto screeched, causing the fox to wince. "What do you mean I can't get back!?"

**"Simple"** the fox said, trying to shake off the ringing in his ears, damn that kid could shriek like a little girl, **"I am drained of chakra, which was the only force that allowed us to get here. Also, I have no idea how to select our native dimension from the infinite others in existence, even if I did have chakra, your quantum resonance frequency has changed to match this worlds, and NO I'm not expalining that that means. Also, to compound this, you no longer have chakra coils, for me to even flow my chakra, if I had it, out of."**

"Wait" Naruto cut off "I have no chakra coils?" he asked, before running around screaming "Oh no, I'm gonna die"

The Kyuubi felt it last bit of resolve slipping as he forced himself not to try to kill the blond idiot. ** "No you idiot!**" he yelled. ** "You can live without chakra coils perfectly fine, what do you think people did before the sage of the six paths discovered chakra? People only die with what's known as "chakra exhaustion" because they overdraw chakra, and the body starts to take the natural energy from their cells and forcibly converts it to chakra which taxes the body immensely."**

"So I'm not going to die?" Naruto said, hopefully, "well thats good" he mused, stroking his chin with his hand. "So...what should I be doing now?" he asked, tilting his head slightly in confusion.

The fox couldn't help but roll his eyes, the kid really must be bi-polar or something, though, he was a bit impressed that the brat wasn't freaking out to much. **"How should I know?**" it asked, sneering. **"You got yourself into this mess, just don't die brat**" it said, regaining some malice. **"now..LEAVE"** it said as Naruto felt himself being pulled away from his mindscape.

There was only one think Naruto could think of. 'Well, this should be interesting.'

--(Somewhere in the Kanto region)--

"Ugggg..." Naruto groaned as he felt his head give a nasty throb. "My head"

"Oh...You're awake, good." A male voice spoke up from across the room he was in.

Looking up, Naruto caught sight of a man, who looked around fifty or so with brownish gray hair wearing some sort of white coat.

"My name is Professor Samuel Oak" he introduced. "And who might you be young man, you were found in my coral with a nasty head injury, can you remember what happened?" he asked kindly.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki" Naruto replied, trying and failing to sound cheerful, the splitting headache made that impossible. "A-and...I don't remember what happened to me." he said, sounding confused.

_'Those acting lessons Koyuki taught me sure are coming in handy'_ he thought to himself, glad the several hours with the princess from Spring Country weren't for naught. Not that he minded spending time with the princess. In fact, he found it quite enjoyable, she was one of the few who seemed to like him and not belittle him whenever she could. Naruto may be...errr...a bit dim, but even he knew the talk about alternate worlds would get him the loony bin, he was better off playing dumb...though considering that's how he normally acts, its hard to tell the difference.

"I see" the man, Oak or something said sadly. "I was afraid of this. Your head injury was quite severe, I thought there was a chance of memory loss. I'm very sorry young man" he finished with a small bow.

Naruto was a bit flabbergasted to be honest. In his short life nobody had ever said sorry to him, especially not someone who did nothing wrong. "Its okay, really" he assured him quickly, feeling guilty for making the old man sad. "I'll just have to get reacquainted with things"

"That's the spirit" Oak said with a smile. It had been a long while since he had met such a well mannered boy. "You are free to stay here as long as you need, and even help take care of the pokemon if you like"

"Pokemon?" Naruto asked, head cocked questionably.

Oaks eyes widened as he heard this. He had figured the only memory damage would be to the very short term memories. For the long term memory to be effected, he pitied the poor boy.

"Yes" he said, eyes softening. "We live in harmony with creature called pokemon. These pokemon are extremely diverse, and we still don't even know everything about them." he said, giving the short explanation. "Wait for one second" he said, exited the room and going who knows where. A minute or so later, he entered the room with a large book tucked under his arm. "Here" he said, placing the book by the nightstand by his bed he was laying in. "Read this, you shouldn't move around for a few days, so you can try to catch up on some things." he said kindly. "Now if you don't mind, I need to go tend to the pokemon." With that, and a small bow, the older man exited the room, leaving the blond alone.

_'This sucks'_ Naruto thought, glaring at the book, willing it to burst into flames. '_First I can't get out of bed, and now I have to read a book.'_

With a hefty sigh, he picked up the book and laid it in front of him.

"Pokemon and Our World, Who, What, When, Where, Why" he muttered to himself, reading the title. "Oh well" he said turning to the first page. "Its not like I have anything better to do" he said grumpily beginning to read.

--(Four Hours Later)--

Naruto was somehow STILL reading the book. It was amazing, pokemon were like creatures Naruto had never even imagined possible to exist before. Sentient creatures that were awesome friends and partners. He had never been able to have a pet, or even a real friend, he would love to have one of these pokemon. This was the longest he had ever been able to focus on any one task.

**"That would be my doing**" a deep, voice spoke up in his head.

_'Kyuubi?!_' Naruto thought, thoughts racing as he absentmindedly marked his reading place. _ 'How can you talk to me?'_ he asked, worried.

**"Easy Brat"** the fox said smugly. "**Since you no longer have chakra coils and I no longer have chakra, the seal has changed a bit, allowing me to communicate with you."**

_'I see'_ Naruto thought with a frown. Having an evil, immortal demon fox being able to talk to you wasn't his idea of a good thing, but if anything Naruto could roll with the punches life threw him. _ 'So mind telling me how I can concentrate so much. It used to be like trying to catch water with a fork'_ he thought, mentally snickering at the conjured image.

**"Quite simple really**" the fox said. "**At least, simple for me. Your brain actually devotes a lot of its processing power to controlling and regulating chakra, your brain more-so because of your sheer chakra capacity and the fact that my chakra was constantly leaking into your own. Since you no longer had chakra, and I seem to have fairly free reign in here, bearing doing anything that my harm you of course, blasted seal, I reworked in the parts of your brain that controlled chakra back into memory and other proceeds."**

_'I see' _Naruto thought, mulling it over. And indeed he did, while he still wasn't able to follow some of it, simply due to a lack of knowledge, he got the gist of it. _ 'Are there any other things that will be effected?'_ he asked suspiciously.

The fox gave a roar of laughter as he heard this. **"I see it was a good move"** it said** "You actually saw that possibility. Good, it means you won't die so quickly, or at least, you better not brat. Yes, there are some other mental facilities that will be effected. As for what they are"** he said trailing off. "**You can figure that our yourself."** it said before cutting off the mental link, which Naruto could feel somehow. What the Kyuubi didn't mention however was just HOW much of Naruto's brain had been devoted to focus his chakra to prevent it from blowing him up. With 40% of his brain now freed and actually active, the fox almost shuddered as he thought about the possibilities. The kids brain was well beyond that of a normal human, it hoped it didn't do something stupid. Going against the natural order of things was never the best idea, but something told it the change had to be done.

Giving another sigh, Naruto looked back at his book, and was shocked to discover that he had managed to read the entire thing. _'Woha'_ he thought to himself. _'There must have been two thousand pages in this book. Its obviously not only memory recall that has been effected, I could never even pretend to read this fast before.'_

"Oh, you finished?" the voice of Professor Oak spoke up from the door way in surprise. "Very impressive" he said as he walked towards Naruto. After checking a couple on instruments and taking Naruto's pulse, he had a bewildered expression on his face. "You seem to be doing remarkably well" he said, still looking quite shocked. "It should haven taken a couple days for you to recover to this extent, but you seem fine."

"So I can get out and about?" Naruto asked, eyes alight with hope. Boosted brain power or not, he did not like being cooped up.

"I suppose" the professor said, frowning slightly. "But I want you to take it easy."

"I can do that" Naruto said quickly. "Would it be possible to see some of these pokemon?" he asked with excitement.

"Yes, yes of course" the professor said with a smile and a small chuckle. "Like I said earlier, you are free to stay as long as you like. In fact, I insist on it. You have such a severe case of memory loss, I wouldn't feel comfortable letting you roam the wild like you are."

"Hehe, thanks" Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head as he sat up in the rather comfortable bed he was laying in. He was touched though, nobody had ever expressed so much concern over him before, let alone a complete stranger.

_'I think I may like this place' _he thought to himself, pretty much basking in the attention he was getting. _'The book said trainers were held in high esteem...if I became a top notch trainer, I could get everybody to recognize me, and I would even have lots of pokemon to be friends with.'_

"Oh yes" Oak said, placing a folder bundle of clothes on the nightstand. "Here are some clothes my grandson Gray, who is now a trainer, had. Your clothing was shredded beyond repair somehow" he said, giving the boy a sympathetic look. "I guess some wild pokemon got a little to curious while you were unconscious. I had to cut away the remainders of your clothes to check for any additional injuries. Don't worry, they're yours to keep."

"Thank you" Naruto said with a smile. While he would miss his orange jumpsuit, it was no means the end of the world. "So once, I get changed, I can see some pokemon?" he asked with a huge smile.

The professor couldn't help but smile as well. "Of course" he said, "I'll just be outside the door" he said walking out the door. "Come on out when you get changed."

Naruto took some to look at the clothes as he head the door close. They were nothing really special, the shirt and pants were a dark blue color with a couple yellow accent stripes. They were made of high quality cloth, obviously durability was in mind when they were designed. Quickly taking off the white tee-shirt the professor must have put on him, he slipped on the shirt and pants. Seeing his sandals, luckily intact, he put those on as well and quickly exited the room, exited to see some of these pokemon.

"That was fast" the professor mused in surprise.

"Hehe" Naruto said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "I guess I just want to see some of these pokemon, the book made them sound so cool."

"Oh they are" Oak said as he guided the blond around his faculty to the back door where they would enter his corral. "Just remember" he said, gaining a serious tone. "Pokemon have feelings and they belong to other trains, please be polite."

"Of course" Naruto said, shaking his head violently. "Do all the pokemon here belong to other trainers?" he asked.

"Mostly" Oak answered. "Some are my pokemon from my years as a trainer, but most of the others belong to other trainers. My grandson Gary, who is trying to decide if he wants to become a Pokemon Researcher like myself, and a boy named Ask Ketchum are responsible for most of the pokemon here. Though..." he trailed off. "wild pokemon get in here as well, like those that likely went to town on your clothes. Anyway, not all of the pokemon used by trainers are out here, most of those are in storage inside their pokeballs back in the lab."

"So why do you care for some trainer's pokemon?" Naruto asked, curiously.

"Well" Oak said a bit sheepishly. "I can't keep track of every pokemon trainers send me, so many have to be put into storage. While they are in their pokeballs, they are in a state of suspended animation. We are not entirely sure what happens in them, but from what we can tell, the pokemon experience an environment that they find enjoyable, do its not cruel to leave them in their pokeballs. Of course, they cannot train or improve themselves while they are in them. Obviously I look after Gary's because of he is my grandson, as for Ash, I've known him and his mother for years. Besides, their the only trainers to come out of Palet Town since myself." he said, puffing up in pride a bit as he thought about Ash and his grandson and the wonderful trainers they had both become.

As the professor opened the door the the back of his lab, Naruto eagerly looked out into the sunlight and felt his eyes open wide in amazement. First off, the flora was amazing. Plants and flowers of every which color were everywhere. Of course, Naruto being Naruto didn't care about some plants, no what he cared about was the pokemon out and about.

A couple little purple rats were scurrying about, playing a game of tag. A trio of small birdlike pokemon flew overhead. Overall, there were to many things for Naruto to describe them.

"Amazing isn't it?" Oak asked with a chuckle. It had been a long time since he had seen such a look of awe on somebody's face regarding pokemon. "Why don't you go on and explore" he suggested gently. "I've made sure all the pokemon that are here are well behaved, they have have some arguments, but they get along peacefully. Even the wild pokemon are kept in line here."

"You mean it?" Naruto asked, stunned that someone would just let him wander around.

"Sure" the professor said with a laugh, seeing the look of disbelief. "You're a good kid, I can tell that much. Just make sure to be careful and avoid hitting your head." he said with a smile.

"Thank you!" Naruto said with a small bow to the man. Not only for letting him explore this awesome place, but for saying he thought he was a good kid. As terrible as it sounded, nobody in his entire life had ever treated him like this...like a person.

"Oh wait" Oak said as he remembered something. "Here" he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a strange rectangular device. "This is a cell phone" he said, seeing Naruto's dumbfounded look. "Its okay if you don't know to work it. It just has a GPS build in so I can track you down in case you get lost, just keep it in a pocket and you'll be good to go. I can also send messages through it, you'll be able to tell because it will vibrate"

Taking the strange devise and placing it into a pocket in the pants he wore he felt his hand brush a spherical object. "Eh?" he said, seeing Oak retreating and deciding not to bother him, he pulled it out. It was about three inches in diameter. The top half was red and the bottom was white with a button like thing in the middle. _ 'This is a pokeball' _he thought to himself, recalling the book he red. _'Oak said these used to be his grandson's, it must have been left in here'_ he mused, idly pushing the center button and watching it change to its expanded form. _ 'So Cool'_ he thought as he began walking around, tossing the ball up and down.

He was broken out of this thoughts as he felt a pair of eyes on him. Turning around he caught sight of another of those purple mice.

"Rata" is said to him, tilting its head to the side observing him.

"Errr...Hi" Naruto said giving a little wave and offering a hand. Oak had said all the pokemon here were well behaved, and he believed him.

The mouse came a little closer to him and gave his hand a little sniff and a small lick.

Seeing this, Naruto reached out and gave the head of the creature a little pet, feeling the soft fur.

"Rat Rata" it said in happy contentedness as it began to...purr? After a few seconds, a second mouse came into the area and the one Naruto was petting moved to face it.

"Rata Rat" it said happily as it began to give chase to the other pokemon.

Naruto could only watch with a smile as the two forms became harder to make out as they fled into the grass.

Taking a quick look around, he tried to thing of where to go. _'Hmmm..._' he thought. _ 'There is a forest to the north, and grassland is to the east. The lab is back south.'_ Looking to his left, he caught sight of a shimmering body of water and several more pokemon playing in it. _ 'A lake'_ he thought. _'Sounds like a good place to go.'_ he concluded before heading over there with a quick job, pokeball still clutched in his hand, forgotten. '_This corral really is immense, this place seems like it could hold thousands of pokemon._'

_'It's scary how quickly I've accepted this place'_ he thought as he came up to the lake. _ 'I know I should miss it back...ho...the leaf village, but it just seems like I belong here_' he thought, not noticing that he had even stopped referring as the leaf as his home. '_Everything is so awesome here'_ he thought wistfully as he caught sight of a tadpole looking pokemon splash itself with water giving squeals of delight. _ 'People don't hate me, and nobody is trying to kill me. Is it wrong to want peace?' _he wondered, now finding himself gazing into the blue depths of the lake.

Naruto almost gave a squawk of surprise as a giant crab like pokemon game out of the water.

"Kingler" it said, looking at Naruto and hurrying over to him, moving surprising fast considering his short legs.

"King" it said, wrapping Naruto in its claws in a tight hug....a very tight hug.

"Please stop" Naruto gasped out, turning blue. "Can't...breathe."

Sensing the humans distress, the crap immediately let go and gave an apologetic look.

"You're a friendly guy aren't you?" Naruto said in amusement as he regained his breath.

"Kinger" the pokemon said happily with a smile as it clicked its claws together before returning to the water.

Naruto could only watch with a smile and a big laugh as the giant crap like creature went back in the water and began to splash around with a turtle looking pokemon and the tadpole looking one as well.

Naruto closed his eyes and gave a deep breath of air. It smelled so different than back in his world. It felt...cleaner and freer if that were possible. Back in his world, everything always had a faint smell of blood and death. It was like the earth and the plants had all absorbed the blood that had been split over the years and the scent still leaked into the air.

As he opened his eyes again, he jumped backwards in surprise. A floating, snake looking pokemon, about three feet long was staring him in the eye. It had two vaguely winged shaped things sticking out of its head on either side with a white dot in the middle of its forehead. It was a dark blue color with a white underbelly.

"Ummm...Hi" Naruto said, felling his heart rate calm down, talk about the invasion of someones personal space.

"Dratini" it said, though Naruto couldn't really tell how it could talk, he didn't see a mouth on the thing.

Carefully reaching out an arm, he ran his hand across its body, felling the silky smooth scales. It was hard to believe pokemon were so powerful and durable given how soft most of them were.

"Drat" the snake, thing, hummed in pleasure.

Before Naruto could do anything else, he felt his pocket give a vibrate. Taking his hand off the snake shaped pokemon, not noticing the slight hiss of disapproval as he did this, he reached into the pocket and pulled out the phone given to him by the professor. 'Please return to the lab' a message said, flashing across the screen.

"I gotta go" he said to the snake pokemon and seeing its saddened look said, "Do you want to come with, I'm sure the professor won't mind."

"Tini" the pokemon squealed in delight, and to Naruto's confusion, flew to his hand and bumped its head to the ball he was holding. In a flash of red, the pokemon vanished into the ball. Naruto couldn't help but stare at the pokeball as it vibrated three times before settling down.

"Okay...." he said, still stunned. "Something tells me that shouldn't have happened" he murmured before beginning his trek back to the lab. "Why do I always seems to get in trouble" he muttered with a sigh.

Professor Oak was sitting on the steps at his back door pondering his new guest. He couldn't help but feel guilty about the boy's situation, it did happen on his property after all. After meeting him, he immediately liked him. The blonds smile was infectious, and his fascination with pokemon was astounding.

"Hello Professor" a voice called out from a ways away.

Oak looked up and caught sight of the boy...holding a pokeball?

"Hello Naruto" Oak said, "It seems like you have an...adventure" he stated blandly, motioning towards the pokeball.

"I can explain" Naruto said quickly, wanting the professor to see it from his angle. And explain he did...

--(Thirty Minutes Later)--

Okay, the story didn't exactly need to take half an hour, but Naruto often went off about all the pokemon he had seen. Eventually though, he did get to the important stuff.

"Then I asked if it wanted to come with me up here and it went into the ball" Naruto said, waving his arms around. "Why would it do that?"

"That is interesting" the professor mused to himself. He didn't think that the boy did anything wrong of course, knowing Gary, he wouldn't be surprised if there were things scatter all around his clothing that he had forgotten about. This was NOT what he expected however. "Dratini are know to be very rare and shy, so much so that they are thought of as legends in many parts of Kanto." he explained. "Plus you said it was levitating" he continued, tapping his chin in thought. "While its not well known, some Dratini can gain the ability to levitate before they evolve into Dragonair, but its highly unusual."

"What should I do with it?" Naruto asked nervously, it was quite obvious he wanted to keep it. He did a fairly good job of masking it though. Well, good for a normal person, it was a pretty crappy job at hiding emotions for a ninja.

"Its yours of course" Oak assured him with a smile seeing the blonds nervousness. Even if he could, he would never separate a child from their pokemon. "The Dratini is obviously very attached to you, even in the short amount of time it saw you. Its rare, but not unheard of for humans and pokemon to form bonds in such a short amount of time."

"I can really keep it?" Naruto asked in excitement, eyes shining in delight. "Thats so cool" he said.

"Yes, Yes" Oak said with a chuckle. "I would like to take a look at it if you don't mind Naruto, its not often I get the opportunity to study such a rare pokemon."

"Sure" Naruto said, nodding his head. "As long as Dratini is okay with it that is." he added.

"Of course" the professor said reassuringly. "I would never do anything a pokemon didn't approve of."

"Okay then" Naruto murmured looking at the pokemon and remembering what he had read about them. "Come on out, Dratini" he said as he pressed a button on the pokeball and held in front of him.

In a flash of red light, the blue serpentine shaped pokemon appeared.

"Dratini" it squealed in delight as it wrapped itself around Naruto's neck and rubbed its head to his cheek.

"It certainly seems attached to you" the professor remarked, smiling slightly at the interaction. It always warmed his heart to see such friendship between a pokemon and a trainer. "Its quite surprising to see such a shy pokemon like Dratini be so affectionate."

Hearing the professors voice, the Dratini's eyes went wide and it quickly ducked behind Naruto's head, hiding almost its entire body from view.

"Okay..." the professor trailed off. "Maybe I spoke to soon."

--

**Okay wow, this was way longer than I initially intended. Well, this is the first chapter of my new story. Its an interesting idea I know, but for some reason, the idea appeals to me. Well, please tell me what you think and I hope you continue reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Talking"

_'Thinking'_

**"Demon Talking"**

_**'Demon Thinking"**_

--(Scene Change)--

**Disclaimer : I own nothing, that includes Naruto and Pokemon.**

**A/N: Here we go, chapter 2. I have no idea how the economy of the pokemon world works, so I made stuff up. None of it seems to unreasonable to me though. I see some of you like my way of making Naruto less of a moron, hehe thanks I'm quite proud of it myself. The idea just came to me and it seems like it would work really well. Now lets just see how long it takes for someone to steal my idea :p As for romance, I'm not really sure, its not really my thing. Considering I've never had a romantic moment in my life, any kind of my pairing I try would probably go horribly wrong. If you guys want one though, I could try one. I guess we'll just see how the story naturally progresses. This was kind of a weird chapter and I'm not sure I'm very happy with it.**

--

Chapter 2 : Beginnings

--

It had been a couple of weeks since Naruto had arrived in the new world. He had done a lot of reading, acquainting himself with the environment, culture, and of course pokemon. He was simply amazed at how peaceful the world was. Murder, Theft, any sort of crime was nearly unheard of in this world. Compared to the world he came from, where assassination and war was commonplace, this world truly was paradise. Even though he had only been around for a short length of time, this place felt far more like home to him than the Leaf ever did.

It was a bit surprising to read more about the economy of the area. While he knew pokemon were important, he didn't know just HOW important they were to this society. The pokemon league had far reaching powers, from law enforcement to hospitals. Every trainer licensed be league was paid a salary (though beginning trainers received next to nothing), and high level trainers often lived a life of luxury as their salaries were enormous. The weirdest thing was that the citizens were willing to pay the taxes to pay these trainers. It was truly mindbogglingly how far reaching the creatures effected this world.

Another unusual thing, was the technology. In the field of pokemon, technology was very advanced, to a point where many people didn't know what various devices actually worked. Even with this high level of technology, most people lived relatively simple lives, and walked most places. It was very interesting to say the least, machines called "cars" existed, but most simply didn't own them. It seems that the industrial base in this world simply wasn't very developed or showed any sign of being developed.

Currently, he was outside with a dark blue serpentine looking pokemon at the lake where they had first met.

"Do you want to try again" Naruto asked to his dragon companion who was panting hard.

"Drat" the blue dragon said forcibly, not wanting to give up. Dratini wasn't looking the greatest. It was panting heavily and had several small bruises on its body. Luckily, since it was a pokemon, it would recover from its injuries extremely quickly. Naruto was still amazed at just how fast pokemon could recover. Most of the time, a nights sleep was enough for even the more serious looking injuries.

"Okay then" Naruto replied, looking concerned at the determined dragon. He had been trying to teach the pokemon a new move. He was surprised to learn the humans taught pokemon new techniques in this world, especially considering humans here didn't have any sort of unique powers. Apparently, if one observed a move, they could see how the other pokemon manipulated an element and try to get their own pokemon to preform it. Of course, this was extremely difficult and most trainers just let the pokemon learn new moves by themselves. Naruto on the other hand, took a more hands on approach. With his background knowledge in ninjutsu, instructing a pokemon on how to manipulate their energy wasn't really that hard. It took a lot of hard work, but it wasn't completely mind numbing.

The dragon, hearing its trainers command, opened its mouth and a blue orb began to form.

"Thats it" Naruto said reassuringly. "Hold it a little more Dratini, you can to it."

"Tini" the dragon grunted out in exertion as it struggled to maintain the ball.

"There" Naruto said as the ball reached the right size. "Release it, Water Pulse!" he cried out.

With a cry of power, Dratini release the orb of water and watched it hit the water and explode with considerable force.

"All right!" Naruto yelled, pumping his fist into the air. "Awesome job Dratini." he said with a huge smile as he ran his hand across the dragons soft back, chuckling as he heard it hum in delight.

"Drat-Tini" the dragon squealed in pride puffing out its chest. It had been a hard couple of days, but it had learned the move. It was rather proud of itself, after all, not many could learn such a powerful move in such a short amount of time.

Water Pulse really was the perfect move to teach Dratini. It had a lot of offensive potential, along with the possible status effect it could cause. That, added with Dratini natural affinity with water, made it the obvious choice.

Unknown to both of them, a pair of eyes was watching them from a hill above.

"Such skill" the man muttered with pride and slightly widened eyes. "And such a bond with his pokemon, it is rare to see."

The Professor wouldn't say he was spying, it was more like he was curious. He had watched as often as he could the blond train the Dratini as far as it could go. Even in the short amount of time the dragon pokemon had progressed by leaps and bounds. The training activities the blond came up with to improve its speed and such were incredible.

"He's being held back here" he said to himself sadly. He was a bit sad of course, he was getting on in age and the blond was excellent with taking care of the pokemon. Almost all the pokemon in the lab had taken an instant liking to the boy from Gary's Nidoking to Ash's Snorlax. It was truly rare to see a trainer who could form bonds with pokemon so easily. "He needs to go out and see the world." he said, a tone of finality on his voice, like he was convincing himself. "He deserves the chance to show the world who he is and what he can do."

Back down at the lake, the blond and Dratini were still celebrating.

"You rock Dratini" Naruto said, smiling. "Lets go back to the lab and see if the professor has any of that pokemon food you liked."

"Dratini" the dragon said in excitement, thinking about the delectable food as it rushed back towards the lab. It had burned a lot of energy trying to preform that move so many times.

Naruto could only give a chuckle as he ran after the surprisingly fast dragon.

--(Ten Minutes Later)--

Back in the lab, Naruto was munching on a sandwich while he watched his Dratini chow down on a bowl of pokemon food make specifically for small dragon type pokemon by the professor.

"It is good?" Naruto asked amusingly as he watched the dragon stuff its face.

"Drat" the Dratini chirped cheerfully, swallowing the food in its mouth and giving its body a cheerful wag.

"I see you two are finally having lunch" an older voice spoke up from the doorway.

"Hehe, yeah" Naruto replied, turning around to come face to face with the professor. "I didn't realize we had been out training that late" he said sheepishly.

"How did your training go by the way?" the Professor asked politely, not betraying the fact that he had been watching.

"It was awesome" Naruto said enthusiastically. "Dratini finished learning Water Pulse today!" he exclaimed.

"Really now?" the professor asked, fainting shock and awe, though it wasn't hard to fake. It WAS an extremely difficult thing to do, and for them to do it in only a couple of days, it was incredible. "Well, congratulations you two" he said with a big smile.

"Hehe thanks" Naruto replied with a huge smile.

"Tini" the dragon also responded quickly before returning to its meal.

"You two surly are amazing" the professor chuckled as he gaze focused on the happily eating dragon. "He must have worked really hard huh?"

"She" Naruto said, absentmindedly, still munching on his sandwich.

"Excuse me?" the professor asked with a puzzled expression. Naruto surly didn't mean the Dratini was a girl did he?

"Dratini is female" Naruto said, stroking the back of the dragon. "Aren't ya girl" he asked as the dragon gave a squeal of delight.

"Tin-Dratini" the pokemon agreed, nodding, enjoying the stroking of her back.

"How do you know?" asked the professor, astonished. There were no noticeable gender differences between male and female Dratini, only a select few like Lance and Clair, both dragon masters, could tell the difference as far as he knew. This could be a monumental discovery.

"I'm not sure" Naruto admitted with a shrug not looking very concerned. "It just feels like she's a girl ya know"

The Professor could only blink in surprise. Opening his mouth and not saying anything, he closed it back up, deciding not to press the issue. Heck, he didn't even know how to respond to something like that.

"I see" he said after a moments pause, finally remembering what he was going to say. "Naruto" he said seriously.

"Yes?" Naruto asked, blinking and strengthening up slightly unconsciously. He had heard that same tone of voice from the Third Hokage on important occasions. It could probably be a good idea to pay attention.

"You are a talented trainer, in fact one of the most talented I've had the pleasure of seeing." Oak explained. "I feel that you need to go out to see the world, to begin your pokemon journey."

"Pokemon journey?" Naruto whispered in surprise. Sure he had wanted to start one, as soon as he had read about the journey's and adventures that were possible, he was hooked on the idea. Granted, he greatly enjoyed spending time at the lab with the pokemon without a doubt, but this world intrigued him a lot. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes, of course" the professor said with a nod. "You are being held back here, I really do think you need to go out and see the world."

"But what about the lab?" Naruto asked. Sure, he wanted to begin a journey, but he didn't want to leave if it meant putting strain on the aging professor. He had been nothing but wonderful to him. "Don't you need help with the pokemon?"

Oak chuckled slightly as he heard this. "I can handle them" he assured the blond. "I'm not an invalid, please do try to remember that. Besides" he added with a smile. "My grandson, Gary, is coming back to begin training in order to become a pokemon researcher, I should have plenty of help."

"But I don't have any supplies, or money" Naruto added. The money given from the pokemon league for a new trainer wasn't nearly enough to buy supplies and keep restocked. Most other new trainers got the majority of their money from their families after all.

"Not a problem" the professor said chuckling once again. "Given a letter of recommendation from a renowned member of the pokemon league, they will allocate more money towards a new trainer" he informed. Of course, this was completely false. As a former trainer of extreme talent, as well as that as a renowned pokemon researcher, he had a tremendous amount of money that he never spent or planned of spending. Helping pay for such a talented young man would be no problem, plus even though he had known the blond for a could of weeks, they had hit it off very well and formed a quick friendship. It may sound odd for two people of such different ages to form such a friendship, but the young man was as passionate about pokemon as he was, and he had very unique insights about them that baffled even him, the vaulted professor of pokemon. The blond's pokemon instincts were stronger than anybody he had ever met before. He knew the young man was far to noble to accept the money if he knew it was from him, but he felt it was his responsibility to guide the blond into becoming all he could be.

"I-I see" Naruto stuttered in surprise. "You would really do that for me?" he asked, almost not believing. This was far beyond housing him and treating him with respect. It was fully blown endorsement. Professor Oak was putting his reputation on the line just for him.

"Of course" the professor said with a small smile. From what he saw from the young man, it was obvious that nobody had ever paid him much attention. Even if he couldn't remember his past, he was still scarred by it, that much was evident from some of his behavior. "I even got this" he said as he pulled out a yellow backpack from behind him. "It has all the tools you will need in your journey. Some pokeballs, medicine, some food and other supplies." he finished, handing the backpack to the stunned boy. "And also this" he added pulling out a red device from a pocket. It was rectangular object and looked like the top flipped up as well. "This is my new pokedex" he explained proudly. "With the collaboration from professors all over the world, I've updated it with data for all known pokemon species in the world."

"Th-Thank you" Naruto stuttered as he looked at the bag and pokedex. "I-I don't know how to every repay you." he said with a bow.

"It is no problem" Oak replied with a big smile. "You are one of the most talented person I have ever seen in my life. Just promise to do your best."

"I promise" Naruto said confidently, regaining his normal vigor. "I'll become the best pokemon trainer ever!" he exclaimed. "Right Dratini?" he asked his companion who had been watching the exchange.

"Tin-Dratini" the small dragon squealed enthusiastically, mimicking her trainer as she went up and curled around his neck.

Professor Oak looked at the trainer and his pokemon with pride. It may seem a bit weird, but he really had been witness to the young mans "rebirth." He was been able to see his progression and enthusiasm with pokemon. Oak knew, from the first day he met him, that Naruto Uzumaki was someone special. He was willing to bet his reputation that Naruto was destined for something great.

Oh how correct he was. He could have never imagined the waves the humble and good natured blond would impact the pokemon world with.

"I guess I should leave tomorrow then huh?" Naruto asked, a tad sad. He had enjoyed his time at the lab a great deal and had learned about things he would have never thought possible. However, he knew it was time to move on. It almost felt like the world was calling out to him, daring him to explore and learn.

"Yes, that would be prudent" Oak said with a nod. "You have been reading up about Kanto so you shouldn't have any problems navigating." he added.

"I see" Naruto said as he stared at the crumbs that were the last remnants of his sandwich. "I guess I should say goodbye to all the pokemon then" he said getting up, careful not to disturb Dratini still wrapped around his neck.

"Good idea" Professor Oak said nodding with a chuckle. "They will miss you a great deal, saying goodbye will help ease it."

--(Five Hours Later)--

Saying goodbye to all the pokemon he had befriended was a lot more difficult that he thought it would be. First off, saying goodbye wasn't really a strong point of his in the first place. Secondly, it was damn hard trying to find all the pokemon in the corral that spanned for acres upon acres.

After five hours though, he had finally finished. Snorlax, Kingler, Skarmory, Nidoking, Pinsir, the flocks of Pidgey and more of course had all had their heartfelt goodbyes. It was rather taxing to tell the truth, it was hard to say goodbye to friends. He just hoped that Gary and Ash took care of their pokemon. If they didn't, well he would have to come back and kick their ass wouldn't he?

He gave a big sigh as he absentmindedly stroked his sleeping Dratini still curled around his neck. From what the Professor could tell, Dratini was still rather young, so it tended to sleep quite a bit. Well, all the training it did probably helped that as well considering all the energy she burned.

"Well, thats it" he said as he finally got back to the labs backdoor. That took a lot longer that I thought it would." he murmured to himself. Opening the door and walking into the dining room, he couldn't help but stare in amazement.

Food, and lots of food. Naruto felt his mouth salivate as he gazed upon all the edible goodness in front of him. Now, during his stay he was able to have more than ramen and he had to say, he loved pretty much all of the food in this world. He had even got over his dislike of veggies!

"Hello Naruto" A cheerful, female voice spoke up from the table, wearing an apron. She had brown hair and eyes and her face held a kind expression that never seemed to waver. While Naruto knew she was in her mid to late thirties, she could easily pass for twenty five.

"Hello " Naruto replied politely. He had met the women several times during his time at the lab. She often visited the professor of whom she was a student of and her kind disposition made here incredibly easy to like. Plus the fact that she made the best food ever made Naruto instantly like her.

"Going off on a pokemon journey" Mrs Ketchum said, lost in thought. "It seems like only yesterday that my Ash left on his journey." she finished, dabbing here eye as tears rolled down her face.

"Errr...yeah" Naruto replied, sweat dropping at the overly dramatic reaction, she seemed to do it quite often, especially when talking about her son. "I'm going to be leaving tomorrow."

"So soon" the women mused in surprise. "But the early bird catches the Weedle I guess" she said, nodding to herself.

"Oh, do sit down" she hurriedly said blushing, not believing she didn't invite the boy to sit down. This was his going away dinner after all.

Naruto did so, and longingly looked at all the food. Mrs Ketchum truly was a talented cook. He wanted nothing more than to reach and grab some, but he also knew the middle aged women also had quite a temper as well. Eating before everyone was at the table was a bit no no at her table.

"Don't worry" she said, seeing the blonds longing look at the food. "Professor Oak should be here soon, then we can dig in."

As if there was an unseen signal, said professor walked in the dining area wearing his usual white lab coat.

"My goodness" Oak said. "This is quite a smorgasbord you've prepared Delia" he said, sitting down and was soon followed by said women.

"Now" he said, raising a glass that was filled with well, something. "I believe we should give a toast to Naruto's future success."

"Here here" Delia said, raising her own glass and smiling. "To Naruto"

--(Two hours later)--

Dinner, or any food made my Mrs Ketchum really, was great. Naruto had eaten more than he probably should have and was now laying in his bed at the lab. To put it frankly, he was restless. He really couldn't wait until tomorrow and it was keeping him from doing anything. Dratini had been put into her pokeball to rest, and the professor and Delia were off somewhere talking, he really didn't know what to do.

"I know" he said, sitting up and and picking something off the floor. "I can see what the professor packed me." Setting his backpack on the bed, he opened it and peered inside.

It was crammed full of stuff, he didn't really know how the professor fit everything in. First off there were a couple changes of clothes. They weren't really anything supter special, but they were of high quality which was good. The shirts were a dark blue with some random designs on them along with some beige pants with plenty of pockets. Along with these were the ever important belt that had clips for six pokeballs and a pouch for his pokedex.

After moving those, along with some other clothing, he looked at some of the more intriguing stuff. Ten red and white pokeballs were there along with a bunch of potions and other antidote type medicines.

Shuffling through the bag, he found a fishing rod, some canned food, a lot of pokemon food, a book on plants and herbs, and some other basic things important for a journey.

"These'll help" he muttered to himself, pulling everything out of the main compartment and moving his attention to the pockets of the backpack "It seems like everything I would need to make it from town to town is here. Professor Oak sure was thorough." Pulling out a couple of oval shaped object from one of the pockets, he couldn't help but blink a couple times before he realized what they were. "A pokegear and poketch?" he whispered to himself, almost unbelieving. Both were new, and very expensive items. He would have protested such an extravagant gift given to him if he didn't know the professor would simply wave it off as if it were nothing. Neither were necessary for a pokemon journey, but they would both make it immensely more enjoyable. _'Thank you professor'_ he thought, touched as he returned all of the items to his bag and placed it back on the floor and laid in bed.

He couldn't help but marvel at where he was and what he was about to do at as he stared at the ceiling.

Back home, his future seemed assured. He would live by the sword and eventually die by the sword, such was the way of the ninja. Now, his future was open to interpretation, there wasn't a thing he couldn't do. He felt so free, like a caged bird being unleashed upon the world.

It was with these peaceful thoughts of a new, brighter tomorrow, that he dozed off, a pleasant, non forced smile blooming for the first time in his life. He was content, even if just for a moment.

--(Saturday - 8 AM)--

The smell of pancakes, waffles, eggs and bacon awoke the former shinobi from his slumber as his stomach gave a mighty growl.

"Ahhh" he said, yawning as he stretched out his arms. "Eh?" he asked as he looked at a pair of clothes draped across a chair in his room. They were identical to the pairs in his backpack.

Quickly moving to the attached bathroom he spent a little while in the shower, appreciating the hot water that he wasn't likely to experience again until he reached Viridian City. He wasn't sure how long he would take to get here, but he wanted to spend some time out in the wold to see some wild pokemon in their natural habitat.

Fifteen minutes or so later, he exited the room, in his new clothes and entered the dining room.

"Ahh, awake Naruto?" the Professor remarked as he sipped his coffee.

"Yup" Naruto replied as he helped himself to some of the food stacked at the table. One of the nice things about losing his chakra was that he no longer had to eat as much to keep his body going. True, he still had an above average metabolism, but it was nowhere near the insane level it used to be.

Breakfast was just some random chatting between the Professor and the blond. Dratini had been released and was happily chowing away at some of its favorite food.

"So are you ready Naruto?" the professor asked, finally asking a question pertaining to the blonds departure.

"I think so" Naruto replied as he pushed his empty plate away from him. "I think I can go alright" he added, biting his lower lip slightly in a uncharacteristic show of nerves.

"You'll do fine Naruto" Oak said, seeing the boys discomfort. "Just trust in yourself" he said in reassurance. "Besides" he added with a smile. "If you need anything, you can just give me a call. You have my number memorized and its programmed into the pokegear."

"Right" Naruto nodded to himself, feeling better. He wasn't really sure why he felt like this, he had gone into life and death situations and had never felt as nervous and apprehensive as he was not.

"Oh yes" the professor said as he reached into a pocket and pulled out a booklet. "Delia wanted me to give this to you. She also wanted me to tell you that she was sorry she wasn't able to make it here to see you off." he said as he handed the booklet.

Looking at it, he immediately realized what it was. It was a booklet of coupons for free meals all over Kanto. He was touched that a women he didn't even see that often had given him such a gift.

"Can you please give her my thanks?" he asked, carefully putting the gift into his bag. "I probably won't be able to see her before I set off."

"Yes, of course" Professor Oak said nodding idly picking up the plates on the table and setting them in the kitchen for someone to clean later, some aide would get stuck doing them most likely.

After that, they both went out to the front door, where they said there good-byes.

"Well, I dare say the next time we meet I hope to see you in some sort of competition" the professor said, looking at the young man in pride. "Just be yourself and you'll be fine" he finished, offering his hand to the blond.

"Yes!" Naruto replied, enthusiastically taking the offered hand and giving it a firm shake. "Next time you see me, you better be cheering for me!" he exclaimed as the handshake ended and he turned away from the lab and headed to the road that left town.

His journey had began, the markings of a legend were in place.

--

**Well, here it is in all its glory. It actually got done faster than I thought and was longer than I thought it would be as well. I know nothing really cool happened, but hopefully I established some needed backing info. Sorry if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, I can't catch them all. (get it? hehe). Anyway, hope you enjoy, please tell me what you think. I may or may not be able to get a new Naruto in the realm of the greek gods chapter out, I really haven't been hit with any inspiration for that lately.**


	3. Chapter 3

"Talking"

_'Thinking'_

**"Demon Talking"**

_**'Demon Thinking'**_

--(Scene Change)--

**A/N: Chapter 3, front and center. We see Naruto's first steps on his way to become a pokemon trainer. Nothing groundbreaking here, but I can't exactly have him seeing rare pokemon or battling legionaries this early on can I? A little note, people will not eat pokemon, that just seems wrong on so many levels to me. Pokemon aren't like pigs or cows, they have an intelligence and self awareness that rivals humans. I don't want to sound PETAish (shudders) but its the truth. Instead, lets just imagine there are ordinary animals in the pokemon world that are bred for food and are never seen. Not the best solution I know, but its the best I could come up with. Sorry the chapter took so long, I've been busy with stuff.  
**

**Someone asked for a list of his pokemon and their known moves in each chapter, so I will indulge. All pokemon and their known moves will be at the end of the chapter.**

--

Chapter 3 : First Steps

--

Naruto didn't realize how much he missed the freedom associated with traveling. Even since his first "C" ranked mission, he had always loved roaming the lands, feeling free as a bird. He supposed it stemmed from the fact the he was always stuck in a village that hated him for most of his life, but for whatever reason, he just loved traveling. It was one of the main reasons he accepted traveling with the old pervert. Sure, learning new jutsu was awesome, but just being able to breath the fresh air was a reward.

The route to Viridian City wasn't the most entertaining thing ever, but he had been able to see a bunch of pokemon. Granted, they were common ones like Pidgey and Rattata, but it was still cool to see pokemon in their natural habitat.

This was his third day on the road so far, and he was just enjoying seeing the sights and experiencing nature for a little while. Well, that and training with Dratini. Of course, now that he had done that, he needed to find something else to do. Nature tended to lose its charm after a little while after all.

He was currently sitting against a tree, enjoying some sweet berries he had found along the way along with his favorite pokemon. Grated, it was also his only pokemon, so that is kinda a null point.

"Dratini" the pokemon squealed as it chomped down on the juicy berry and wiggled its body in delight. Dratini was a fan of food, of that there was no doubt.

"They are good, aren't they?" Naruto mused, agreeing with his pokemon as he bit into another berry. He was glad the professor had packed the book on edible plants. "So, what should we do now?" he asked, mostly to himself.

"Ti?" the pokemon said, looking up at her trained with a tilted head.

"We could try out hands at catching some more pokemon" Naruto explained, seeing the dragons confusion. "I mean, if were going to compete in this league thing, we're going to need some more friends to help us."

"Tini-Ti" the pokemon squeaked excitingly. More friends were always good! The more the merrier as far as she was concerned, well, as long as any other pokemon were aware what she was her trainers favorite. Dratini was still a young pokemon after all, playing was still something she liked to do.

"I guess that means we should see what we can find then huh?" Naruto said chuckling as he got up and felt Dratini wrap around his neck, her favorite perch. "Lets go find us some pokemon then" he said, as he set off into the surrounding fields.

--(A Few Minutes Later)--

Okay, to tell the truth, Naruto had no clue what he was looking for. How was he suppose to choose what pokemon to catch anyway?

_'Hmmm'_ he thought as he continued to peek through grass and trees. _'Its mostly Pidgey and Rattata in the area, so that kinda limits my options. I've heard there are some HootHoot around, but it would be impossible to see them during this time of day. Hmmm...I guess a flying type wouldn't be to bad and could come in handy.'_

"That settles it" he said nodding to himself, looking at his pokemon still curled around his neck. "We're going after a Pidgey." he decided.

As he spoke, it was like some unseen force reacted and a Pidgey jumped out of the tree and landed in front of the blond.

Naruto could only blink slightly as he saw this, talk about convenient. Giving a silent prayer of thanks to whatever deity was looking out for him, he prepared for battle.

"Okay Dratini" he said as the dragon uncurled from his neck and he got out a pokeball. "Are you ready?"

"Dratini" the dragon chirped determinedly. She was ready to prove herself to her trainer and to herself. It was time to kick some butt.

"Give Water Pulse a try!" he ordered, pointing at the Pidgey for no particular reason, I mean, Dratini was a smart pokemon, it wasn't like she needed to be told who to target.

The dragon, ignoring the unintentional insult of her trainer, formed the blue orb in her mouth and let it fly towards the bird at an impressive speed.

What Naruto didn't expect was for the bird to dodge to the side and fly in at Dratini at a high speed.

"Thats Quick Attack" he muttered, seeing the speed. "Dodge Dratini" he said quickly, watching the dragon nimbly get out of the way. Its slender body was quite good at dodging.

"Now use Body Slam" he yelled.

"Tini" the Dragon said as she slammed into the bird, instantly knocking it out.

"All right!" Naruto yelled as he threw his pokeball at the downed bird.

Watching in trepidation as the ball blinked a couple times, he gave out a cheer as the blinking stopped and the ball remained, pokemon captured.

"Sweet!" he said, pumping out a fist. "Look Dratni, we caught a Pidgey!" he yelled out in glee.

"DratDratini" the pokemon squealed in delight, curing herself back around her trainers neck and rubbing herself softly against his cheek. "Tini"

"You were awesome" Naruto said, petting her head. "That was great for our first pokemon battle."

Quickly checking his poketch, which he had strapped to his wrist before he left, he noticed the time.

"3:30" he muttered to himself, frowning in thought. "If we hurry we should be able to make it to Viridian City by nightfall, I can't say I would mind sleeping in a bed tonight."

"DratTini" the pokemon agreed. The dragon had taken to sleeping with him during his stay at the lab for some reason. While she would normally rest and travel in her pokeball, she seemed to enjoy sleeping with him better than in her pokeball. It wasn't that she disliked pokeballs, but she seemed to like being free better. It wasn't like Naruto minded or anything, but it was interesting. A unique pokemon for a unique trainer indeed.

"I know" Naruto agreed with his pokemon. "These grounds aren't very comfortable. All the sticks in the ground poke into my back"

So with his first pokemon caught, he set his sights north and began the moderate trek to Viridian City.

--(Four Hours Later)--

Viridian City was impressive, at least to Naruto's eyes. It was quite a bit larger than Pallet Town and it held a lot of the things Pallet town lacked, like shops, restaurants, and hotels. In retrospect, Naruto realized that Pallet town was quite small.

Right now, there was one thing Naruto was grateful for, the fact the pokemon centers were recognizable. It was the biggest building in the city with some unique architecture. The center itself was a domed building that seemed like it could house hundreds of pokemon and still have plenty of room for trainers to stay. At least he didn't have to wander around looking like an idiot.

Shaking his head, he walked into the center to come face to face with a rather pretty lady with pink hair wearing a pink nurses outfit.

"Hello" she said kindly. "I am Nurse Joy, how can I help you."

"Hi" Naruto replied with a small bow, best be polite to those who were healing his pokemon. "I am Naruto Uzumaki, can you please heal my pokemon?" he asked politely, handing over Dratini, who had been returned to her pokeball a little while ago, and Pidgey's pokeball.

"Of course" the Joy said with a smile, handing the pokeballs over to the oval shaped, pink Chansey beside her who was carrying a tray in which the pokeballs were set upon. "Will you be needing a room for the night?" she asked the obviously new trainer.

"Yes please" Naruto replied. While he did have more funds than he anticipated, there was no need spending it frivolously if he didn't have to. More money for emergencies was a good thing, you never knew when you might need it after all.

"Okay, great" Joy said, typing a couple things on her computer. "And can I get an ID please?" she asked.

"Sure" Naruto responded, taking his pokedex from his belt and handing it to the nurse.

"Thank you" Joy replied as she plugged the pokedex into the computer and then handed it back as Chansey re-entered the room. "Okay, you're room is registered" she said as she picked up the pokeballs from the egg pokemon. "And you're pokemon are in tip top shape" she added as she handed Naruto his pokeballs back. "Your room is number 24" she also added as she handed him a key. "Dinner should still be serving and breakfast is served from 6 to 10 AM, just follow the arrows to find housing area and cafeteria."

"Thank you Nurse Joy" Naruto said with a smile. That had gone on a lot smoother than he could have even hoped. Pokemon centers were really useful for traveling trainers.

Attaching his pokeballs back onto his person, he followed the conveniently placed signs and easily found the mentioned cafeteria.

It was a good size, and looked like it could seat a couple dozen people comfortably. There were a few trainers eating, but other than that it was pretty bare.

Walking up the front of the room, where there was an area packed with plates full of food, he grabbed one full of roasted...something and mashed potatoes and started walking towards an empty table.

Naruto wouldn't deny the fact that he was hungry, he had been walking for several hours straight after all. Thus, you really can't blame him for digging into his food with gusto. Of course, not everyone felt that way, and many nearby trainers backed away hastily in disgust.

An hour later, a second plate of food, a bathroom break and a quick change of cloths and we find the blond in bed staring at the ceiling. The room was basic, just holding a bunk-bed and a couple nightstands. The bed was comfortable though, an that was all Naruto cared about.

Now, you may ask what Naruto was doing going to bed at around 9 o'clock. Well, he did want to get up early the next day and set off to Pewter City so it was understandable. Plus, what else was he suppose to do? Sure shopping wouldn't be to bad, but it wasn't like he had any room to bring stuff along with him. If it didn't fit in his already stuffed backpack, he wasn't going to be able to bring it with him.

It was to thoughts of all the cool pokemon he would see in the Viridian forest that the blond fell asleep too. His dragon pokemon curled asleep near his head, well she was dreaming about the first battle of her career and how much she kicked ass. Of course, the fact that Pidgey was a low level pokemon detracted from the victory somewhat.

--(The Next Day)--

The Viridian forest was massive, much more so than he anticipated. Seeing it in person was a lot different than seeing it on a map. It was around nine o'clock and he had been on the path for a couple hours already. After having a quick breakfast at the pokemon center, he headed out into the forest that led to Pewter City.

Finding himself in a clearing with a river running through, he decided here would be the prefect place for some of the activities he had planned.

Now, you may be asking why he was stopping at nine instead of going straight through and trying to reach Pewter City as quickly as possible. The answer is quite obvious, he knew he needed to train his pokemon. He wanted to be the best and he would accept no less. Thus, he needed to train his pokemon a lot more before he was going to challenge any gym. He knew it was going to be hard work. Pewter City had a rock type gym, so Dratini's Water Pulse move should be highly effective, but should she get knocked out, he knew Pidgey, being a normal and flying type, would be mismatched. His options, train Pidgey up enough so that it could match up against a rock type, or catch a grass type pokemon.

While catching a grass type pokemon would be nice, he would have to train up Pidgey anyway, so that was going to be his focus. If he happened to see a decent grass type pokemon, well that would just be an added bonus.

"Lets go you two" he called out as he tossed two pokeballs out, idly catching them after they had released their pokemon.

"Dratini" the dragon said excitedly as she appeared.

"Pidg" the bird cawed, looking around. Naruto realized this was actually the first time he had released the pokemon since he caught it. He was pretty embarrassed about that, he didn't realize he wanted to get to Viridian City so bad.

"Hey Pidgey" he said. "I am Naruto, your new trainer, and this is Dratini" he introduced, gesturing to himself and the dragon.

"Pidgey" the small brown bird cawed, saluting Naruto with a wing and snapping to attention. "Pidge Pidgey"

"Errr...at ease" Naruto replied, sweat dropping as the bird settled back down. _'Great' _he thought sarcastically. _'I have an insane bird who thinks its in the military.'_

Shaking his head of the depressing thoughts, he whipped out his pokedex and quickly scanned the bird, wondering what attacks it knew.

"Pidgey, the flying pokemon" the robotic voice of the pokedex said. "Common in grassy areas and forests, it is very docile and will chase off enemies by flapping up sand. This particular specimen currently knows the following attacks. Tackle, Gust and Quick Attack." it informed before shutting itself off.

"Hmmm..." Naruto hummed as he thought this over. "Not too bad I guess, but we should work on some more flying type attacks and some general speed exercises would be nice too."

As it watched its blond trainer talk to himself as he formulated plans, Pidgey couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding. It had a feeling it was going to be in for a rough time.

Unfortunately, it was all too right.

Naruto wanted his pokemon to be at their best, he wanted to help them become all they could be. While he did genuinely care for them tremendously, when it came to training, he was relentless. Thats not to say he was heartless, but he was very tough on them.

This little fact became evident to Pidgey as it dodged another water pulse that would have blew it out of the sky. The worst thing about this was that while it was getting weaker, Dratini's aim was increasing the the time it took to form the water attack grew less and less.

They had already been going at it for a couple hours with only a couple small breaks. At first, its trainer had had it go through a complicated series of hoops and branches in the forest to improve its speed...WHILE wearing weights. Then, after that, he had the demon dragon start firing water pulses at it while it had to try and dodge.

It was hell, or at least as close to hell as it could think of.

Back on the ground however, Naruto was thinking very different things.

'_What an incredible growth rate'_ he thought to himself as he watched his Pidgey struggle to dodge the Water Pulse. _'Pokemon gain strength so fast, in only these couple hours, Pidgey and Dratini have increased exponentially. Not only is Dratini's Water Pulse more accurate and faster to form, but the entire attack's speed has increased. Plus, even with these increases, Pidgey is still able to dodge. Amazing...to increase performance to this extent would take a human months. Pokemon truly are monsters born for battle, even more so than ninja'_

"Okay, thats enough" he called out to the pokemon, watching in amusement as they both fluttered wildly down to the ground, exhausted. "Good job you two" he said, chuckling as he heard two weak responses from them. "I can tell you two have gotten a lot stronger. Anyway, its lunch time!" he exclaimed, setting two bowls in front of his pokemon and digging into a couple sandwiches himself.

As he bit into his food, he mulled over the training of the last couple hours. It was going well, very well. Not only had Pidgey's speed increased tremendously, but its wing strength seemed to increase quite a bit, which was great. More wing strength should equate into more powerful gust attacks after all. Its Gust should be strong enough to send most pokemon flying.

It was silent for the time it took them to eat, though it had something to do with the fact that Naruto was deep in thought thinking and the two pokemon were far to exhausted to say anything.

Looking at his two pokemon, Naruto pondered what to do next. _'Using the same exercise would be kinda boring_' he thought to himself. _'Perhaps I should test their battle skills..."_ he pondered, humming and not seeing the worried looks his two pokemon gave him.

"Hehehe" he chuckled to himself. "Yes, that may be a good idea" he said, smiling to himself.

As this happened, Pidgey and Dratini couldn't help but feel a shiver going down their backs. This did not feel good.

"Now..." he said, turning to face his pokemon who had finished eating. "Who's up for some more...tor...training" he said, with a grin.

"Tini" "Pidge" were all the two pokemon could groan out. There was still sun to burn, and it didn't seem like it was going to be fun.

--(Three Days Later)--

Pewter City was very...rock inspired. After spending three days surrounded by the lush forest, Pewter just seemed dead.

There were a bunch of houses and shops, but it all lacked a certain flair. It all just looked rough and ragged, like rocks. He supposed it was fitting though, considering the gym used rock type pokemon.

Now, it really should have only taken a couple days to reach Pewter City, not the four it had taken him, but he couldn't help himself but train Dratini and Pidgey against the swarms of Beedrill in the forest. Pidgey had even learned a new move that he was itching to use against the gym leader.

Currently, the blond was at the pokemon center reception area, awaiting Nurse Joy to heal heal his pokemon before he went to the gym to challenge the gym leader.

"Your pokemon are at full health" the pink haired nurse said from behind the counter as she say the blond trainer get up and pick them up. "And I must say" she said approvingly. "I rarely see such healthy and strong pokemon, you must train them very well."

"Thank you" Naruto said, blushing slightly in embarrassment. Here was a complete stranger complimenting him! "I will probably be back after I challenge the gym leader" he informed.

"Oh?" The nurse said. "Would you like me to reserve you a room for the night then?" she asked.

"Would you?" Naruto asked, eyes lighting up. "Could you make that two nights though?" he asked, tentatively.

"Of course" the nurse said cheerfully. It was refreshing to see such a nice and respectful young man. "When you come back I can give you your key."

"Thank you" Naruto said with a bow as he exited the pokemon center, his heart feeling lighter. It was still so heart lifting to experience such actions. He still wasn't use to people treating him with respect.

Back in the pokemon center, said nurse was speaking to another man.

"Did you really have to hide" Joy asked looking at the man wearing black and blue clothing.

"Yes" the man replied. "I could not reveal myself to him." he informed with a slight frown.

"Is he that special?" the nurse asked, looking at the blond boys back as he walked with both hands behind his head.

"Yes" the man replied, he too was looking at the boy, but with a contemplative look on his face. "He is strong, very strong. I will have to watch out for him" he informed as he exited the pokemon center, not seeing the boy any longer. "After all, aura is with him. Goodbye Nurse Joy" he said politely.

"Goodbye" Joy said, watching the mysterious man depart. She could only wonder what the future held for the blond. "Riley"

--(Pewter Gym)--

It didn't take long to find the gym. It did look like a giant pile of rocks after all, it was hard to miss.

"Hello" he called out as he opened the doors and gazed upon a standard looking pokemon battlefield with several boulders built into it.

"Hello young challenger" a man across the expanse of the room replied. "I am Flint, the Pewter City gym leader, have you come to challenge me?" he asked.

"Yes" Naruto replied, walking forward until he was standing in the challengers box. "I am Naruto" he said lamely, introducing himself.

"Very well" Flint said, walking forwards until he was in his box. "My wife Lola" he said, gesturing to a red haired women in the referees box. "Will be the referee" he informed. "This will be a two on two battle and only you may switch pokemon." he said. "Now get ready, go Geodude" he roared as he unleaded his first pokemon.

The pokemon looked like a round rock with two arms poking out of the sides.

"Geodude" it said, ready for battle.

Naruto merely raised an eyebrow at it. _ 'Not really worth using the pokedex.'_ he thought to himself. _'I already know what type it is, and its not like it can tell me the moves of someone elses pokemon.'_

"Lets go" Naruto said as he tossed his pokeball. "Pidgey"

"Pidge Pidgey" the small bird said as it appeared in a flash of white, saluting Naruto.

"HAHAHA" Flint laughed as he say the bird. "You are using a normal and flying type against a rock type?" he asked incredulously.

As he heard this, Pidgeys eyes budged. "Pi Pidge" he said loudly, pointing its wing at Flint. "Pidgey Pid Gy."

"I agree with Pidgey" Naruto said a smirk forming on his face. "We're going to kick your butt. Are you scared?" he asked mockingly.

"Brave kid" Flint muttered under his breath. "I admire that" he admitted. "Geodude" he ordered "use tackle"

"Really?" Naruto muttered as he saw the rock pokemon move slowly towards Pidgey. "get into the air Pidgey" Naruto ordered, smiling as he saw the bird take flight and the rock to tackle air. "Use Gust" he said.

"Pidgey!" the bird roared as it unleashed its powerful gust attack forcing the rock flying back into a boulder, knocking it out instantly.

"G-Geodude is unable to battle" Lola said, amazed that the little bird could do so much damage.

"W-What?!" Flint exclaimed, seeing his downed pokemon. "Geodude return" he said softly, returning his pokeball to his belt.

_'What a powerful attack'_ he thought, sweat building on his brow. _'A Pidgey can't normally toss anything more than a Caterpie with its gust. How the hell did he train his pokemon that level.?'_

"Not bad" he said, with more gusto than he felt. "But try this on for size" he yelled as he tossed another pokeball. "Onix I choose you"

In a flash, a giant snake like pokemon made of rocks appeared.

"Wow..." Naruto muttered as he saw the pokemon. "Okay, that may cause a problem."

_'Oh boy'_ Naruto thought to himself, frowning. '_Onix is far to heavy to be effected by gust or any normal attack.'_

"Guess we're going to have to use that." he muttered to himself.

"Alright Pidgey" Naruto ordered, looking at the bird. "Get high into the air and build some speed."

"Gy" the bird said, hearing its trainers command. Getting as high into the air as it could, it swooped down towards the giant rock snake with tremendous speed.

"Now" Naruto yelled as he saw his pokemon near the rock type. "Use Steel Wing!"

Pidgey's wings lit up to a brilliant white as it approached the rock type. "Pidgey" it roared as it crashed itself into the rock type, a large plum of smoke emanating after it.

"Onix..." the rock type yelled in pain as the bird smashed into it. Steel was super effective against rock types after all.

"Pidgey?" Naruto called out, worriedly. As the dust cleared he caught sight of his bird laying on the ground, its eyes looking unfocused. It was unconscious.

"Pidgey is unable to battle, Onix is the winner." Lola said, sweat dropping at the sight. What good was Steel Wing if the pokemon that used it just crashed upon its use.

"Pidgey return" Naruto said as he returned his pokemon to its pokeball. "I guess its still to soon to use that move" he said to the prone pokeball in his hand. "You still can't control your flight after you use it. Oh well, you'll get it soon, don't worry." he said as he replaced his pokeball to his belt and drew another. "Its your turn" he said, throwing out his pokeball. "Dratini."

In a flash, the small, snake like pokemon emerged from its pokeball.

"Tini" she said happily as she wriggled around on the ground in delight.

"The final battle will begin" the referee said, shaking herself slightly. The first two battles had finished before she knew what was going on. "Onix vs Dratini, BEGIN!"

"Onix use Dig" Flint ordered quickly, smiling as he saw his pokemon burrow itself underground.

"Dratini, get into the air" Naruto said calmly, watching the ground.

Without a word, the dragon obeyed her trainer and floated gently into the air.

"Quick Onix" Flint ordered, seeing his plan fail. "Get out of the ground and use Iron Tail!" he ordered.

With a loud road, the rock snake appeared out of the ground, right in front of Dratini, its tail alight in a white glow.

_'Perfect_' Naruto thought, smiling slightly. "Now" he said "Water Pulse."

With all the speed it could muster, Dratini formed the blue orb of water in her mouth and released it, directly into Onix's face.

With a huge crash, the rock pokemon crashed to the ground.

"Onix is unable to battle, the victory goes to Dratini and Naruto" the referee said, raising a hand towards Naruto's side.

Flint could only blink as he recalled his pokemon. _'H-How did Dratini form that water pulse so fast?'_ he questioned himself. _'I've never seen something like that.'_

"Congrats" he said after a few seconds, walking towards the blond boy and shaking his hand. "You have earned this" he said, handing Naruto a gray object. "The Boulder Badge"

_'Yes' _Naruto thought as he gazed upon the eight sided badge with a huge smile. _'First step, complete...'_

--

-

Dratini

Known moves: Water Pulse, Body Slam.

-

Pidgey

Known Moves: Gust, Quick Attack, Tackle, Steel Wing

-

--

**Not sure if I'm completely happy with this chapter, but I didn't find anything that yelled out to NOT submit it. Anyway, Naruto wins his first gym battle, yay. Now, before you yell that Naruto's pokemon are overpowered remember, this is the first gym and I don't see Flint as a very good pokemon trainer. There was a reason he failed to become a master and went back home, unable to confront his family after all. Anyway, hope you all enjoy. **


	4. Chapter 4

"Talking"

_'Thinking'_

**"Demon Talking"**

_**'Demon Thinking"**_

--(Scene Change)--

**A/N: Chapter Four Rolling Out. Okay, this story will be based mainly on the anime. A bunch of you wanted Naruto to have a travel partner(s), so I'll see what I can do in that department. I've never tried to write an OC before though. For those people who are finding errors in my writing, I'm sorry. I'm just a high school English student who has never taken any other sort of writing lessons with not a lot of time on his hands. Mistakes do happen and I don't always find them. I've taken a couple liberties with Mt Moon here, please don't kill me. Its shorted than I wanted, but I have been really busy and I wanted to get at least something out.**

**I have re-uploaded this chapter. Fanfiction deleted all mention of Mt Moon in the chapter...not sure why though.  
**

Chapter 4 : Baby Steps

The next day brought clear skies with the lovely sound of birds chirping. It was quite peaceful...except for the sounds of battle and the explosions of dirt and air.

"Now Pidgey, Steel Wing into Gust!" the voice of a young man rang out through the air.

The wings of a small bird high in the air lit up to a brilliant white and it rapidly flapped them, causing its opponent to go flying into the ground with a thud as a huge gust of air along with blades of white energy tore at it.

"NO! Butterfree!" another, female voice yelled out in alarm, seeing her pokemon crash. "Return" she said in defeat as she returned the butterfly pokemon back to its ball. "Good job Butterfree" she said to the pokeball "We almost had them"

The girl looked about thirteen or so, and had rather striking features. Midnight black hair was accompanied with emerald green eyes. She had soft, attractive facial features and a rather...errr...feminine figure for a thirteen year old. "Good battle" she admitted, walking forwards and shaking the hand of her blond opponent who had finished praising his pokemon and returning it. "Your Pidgey is really strong" she praised with a glance to the pokeball in the boys hand.

"Thanks" Naruto replied, as he placed Pidgey's pokeball back into his belt and shook the offered hand. "Your Butterfree is awesome too" he said with a smile. "You almost got us with that Solar Beam"

The girl blushed a bit under the praise and waved him off. "That may be, but I've never seen something like the Steel Wind and Gust combo" she said beaming "It was amazing, the combination of power and beauty was spectacular."

"Hehe thanks" Naruto said sheepishly. "I wanted to get in some practice before I left for Mt Moon. You were much tougher than I thought you would be." he admitted, thought it wasn't unkind. "No offense of course" he quickly added. He knew all to well that insulting women wasn't a good idea.

"No problem" the girl said, waving him off. She didn't hear any sarcasm or genuine offensive language, so she just waved it off. It was kinda weird though, normally she would have gone off if someone said something like that. "Mt Moon?" the girl mused, more to herself than the blond. "You're going to Cerulean City then?" she asked.

"Yup" Naruto said proudly, puffing up his chest. "I'm going for my second gym badge. I had my first ever gym battle a couple days ago and I won!"

"S-Second?" the girl asked, surprised and a bit embarrassed. Here she was, a trainer who had been around the block so to speak for a couple years already and a noobie had beaten her. Sure, Butterfree was a new pokemon, but it still hurt her pride a bit. She was by no means an egotistic person, but it still surprised her that she could lose to someone so inexperienced. "You seem a little old for someone just starting out." she said, more as a statement than anything else.

"I errrr...started out late" Naruto said lamely with a bit of a blush.

"I see" the girl said, giggling slightly. "Well" she began, wondering why she was about to ask this. She wasn't normally impulsive at all, it was the reason her family had let her leave home so early in life. She felt as if she could trust the blond for whatever reason. Besides, it was a bit boring traveling by herself and someone to talk to would be nice "I'm heading over to Cerulean as well, would you like to accompany me?" she asked, batting her eyelashes a bit for added effect.

"Ummm...sure I guess" Naruto replied, blushing a bit. It was rather hard not to, she was exceedingly beautiful after all and he WAS a teenage boy.

"Great" she said with a radiant smile, showing off her brilliant white teeth. "My name is Amelia and I'm going to be the greatest pokemon coordinator ever!" she said firmly, pride and drive behind her voice.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki" Naruto replied with an equally brilliant smile. "And I am going to be the best ever pokemon master!" he said with equal gusto.

The girl, Amelia smiled. "You better train harder if you want that" she said teasingly, sticking out her tounge. "Now lets go then!" she exclaimed grabbing hold of the blonds arm. "I want to see if I can find a Clefairy on Mt Moon."

Naruto could only think of one thing as he found himself getting dragged away. _'What did I get myself into?'_

--(Mt Moon)--

After traveling for a couple hours, they finally found themselves outside the confines of Pewter City and unto the mountainous terrain of Mt Moon. Walking a bit boring to be sure, but on the bright side he was able to learn more about his traveling companion.

He was surprised how easy she was to get along with. During the short trek together, he had already felt himself get rather attached to her, it was strange.

Amelia was, well very prideful. It didn't take long to figure that out. From her pokemon to the way she looked, she took great pride in every single thing in her life. At first he thought that it was just plain arrogance, but as they spent more time together it became obvious it was wasn't anything of the sort.

Apparently, Amerila belonged to some sort of really wealthy family. Becoming a pokemon trainer was her way of breaking free of her last name (which he never did get, not that he cared) and to forge her own path. Now, from what he could tell her parents loved her and the feelings were mutual, but she felt the need to become her own person. It was because of this that she could come across as arrogant. Everything from her pokemon to her personal appearance represented who she was as a person, an individual and it was something she took great pride in.

It also surprised him to find out that she was a accomplished coordinator, a very accomplished one. She had been a trainer for a couple years and she had already won the Grand Festival in her home region of Hoenn. With that in mind, he could kinda see why she was so surprised by his victory. Of course, his ego didn't get to boosted up, she quickly informed him that she had had her Butterfree for only a couple weeks, so it wasn't the greatest of victories. The praise she gave him and his pokemon was nice though.

Mt Moon was very...well rocky to say the least. They had been climbing for a couple hours or so on the mountain and hadn't seen hide nor tail of any pokemon Naruto was interested in.

They did happen upon some sort of rabid Golem a little while before the current time and Amelia had enthusiastically unleashed her freakishly powerful Sceptile and defeated it with ease.

Speaking of the Septile...well to say Naruto was impressed would be an understatement. The pokemon was a monster, he had no doubt that it would crush Pidgey and Dratini at their current levels with ease. It was rather humbling to see such a powerful pokemon utilized by such an experienced trainer.

They were currently on the decline of the mountain, and Naruto had to admit that he was a bit disappointed. He didn't really expect to catch any pokemon, the rock types on the mountain didn't really match up with his battling style very well, but he at least had wanted to see some more pokemon on the mountain. It had been a barren wasteland where they were. At least they had been able to avoid any of the caves in the area.

"I don't get it" Amelia said, wiping her brow of some sweat as the duo sat down on a couple of rocks for a quick break. "It should be teeming with pokemon, but other than the stray Golem, there's been nothing." she said in frustration reaching into her bag and grabbing a couple bags of potato chips and throwing one over to her blond companion.

"I know" Naruto said with a frown, taking a couple of the salty snacks and stuffing them in his mouth, relishing the taste. Another thing he had learned about Amelia, she liked her snacks, be it candy or chips it didn't really matter. Not that he was complaining, he benefited from her seemingly endless supply very well.

Amelia gave a sigh as she finished off her snack and stuffed the empty bag back into her bag. "Alright then" she declared. "We'll just have to skip it then, who needs a Clefairy anyways?"

Naruto could only give a chuckle as he too placed his empty chip bag into his backpack. Amelia wasn't deterred by anything, she had an enthusiasm that matched his own when it came down to training and life itself.

Naruto gave a chuckle as he followed his determined companion as they descended.

"Hey Amelia" Naruto asked suddenly, thinking of something. "What are you doing in Kanto anyways? I thought that Kanto's first Grand Festival didn't start for another year."

"Thats true" Amelia said, nodding with a small frown on her face. "While I may have won my first Grand Festival, it was mainly through luck" she admitted. "When I entered the Johto Festival last year, I got eliminated pretty early. I got way overconfident and I lost right after the appeal round. It was then I realized that I needed more training, to better connect with my pokemon, and myself. So I decided to come to Kanto and take a year to train and then enter the Festival here when it starts."

Naruto blinked...once, twice, and a third time. "Wow" he said shocked, looking at her weird. "Its hard to imagine that you could be beaten so easily" he said. "You and your pokemon are really strong."

"Yeah" Amelia said, with a morbid nod. "Granted, the person I lost to was a man named Wallace who went on to win the whole thing, but even with a type advantage Sceptile was crushed by his Milotic."

"R-Really?" Naruto asked, shuttering slightly. He had seen her Sceptile with his own eyes and knew how strong it was. To hear that another trainer had made the grass type look foolish was almost depressing for the blond. He had thought he and his pokemon were rather strong. To hear about such monster trainers was hard to even comprehend foe a beginner like him.

"Yup" Amelia replied with a small smile. "I'm actually glad that I lost so badly. Its really turned my world around and made me realize that me and my pokemon may be good, but there are those better than me. Even though I have only been in Kanto for a few weeks, I know I've gotten stronger both in terms of pokemon and myself." she finished with passion.

Naruto felt his respect for the black haired girl increase exponentially from her little speech. The fact that she was able to not only see her own faults, but be able to admit them and try to correct them spoke volumes of her character. Digging into his own path, he could recall a lot of people who were NOT able to do such a thing. The figures of Sasuke, Tsunade, and Kakashi floated into his head. As much as he may respect the last two, even he could realize that they were still living, dreading the past.

It was really one thing that Naruto always strode to do, ever since he was little. He always wanted to improve himself, whether it was a result of the scorn he received he didn't know, but the drive was always there. Of course, he would never change who he was as a person, but he always would try to make himself better. He felt it was one of the traits that made him such a good ninja.

"I'm glad you came here too" he replied with a smile to equal her own. "Otherwise, we might have never met and I would have missed out on meeting such a cool person" he finished with his smile widening. He didn't really know why he said that, but it just felt right, like the girl needed some outside force to assure her that she had done the right thing.

Amelia felt her face redden a bit, she was fairly certain the blond didn't really know how sweet he could be. From what she could tell, he was intelligent, extremely so, but his insights into the opposite gender was less than through. It just added to the endearment in her opinion. He was the kind of person that was very easy to get along with and who wore his emotions on his sleeve. It was also nice that he didn't care about her money either. She had made sure to keep a careful eye on his reaction when she mention coming from a wealthy family and he didn't even care. She was still pissed off from the last person that wanted to travel with her in hopes of filling their wallet. He was one of the most noble person she had even met, he even initially refused her offer of snacks, saying he didn't want to eat her food. Of course, a little tearing of the eyes was all it took for him to accept some. Hey, it might have been a little underhanded, but she liked sharing food with friends. Just the idle chit-chat they had along the way was some of the most fun she had had in a while, with another human at least.

"Thanks" she replied, regaining her bearings. She was a Grand Festival winner, something as silly as a compliment wasn't going to get to her. "It really does...mean a lot" she said soft, to softly for the blond to hear. At least that would have been the case if said blond wasn't a former ninja and had a fox demon stuck in his mind. While his chakra may be gone, his hearing still remained sharp.

Naruto could only smile as he heard this. In his time in the Leaf, he had never really impacted anyones life. Sure the Rookie Nine as people called them, could call him a friend, but he really didn't do anything for them. To see someone who appreciated his comments and concerns was nice, especially since she didn't beat him over the head whenever he said something. Sure, now he realized some of the things he said to Sakura were rather...errr...inelegant, but her reactions were way uncalled for.

"Its the truth" he said firmly. "Even if we go our separate ways once we get to Cerulean, it was still worth it. In can get boring traveling alone."

"It does, doesn't it?" Amelia mused as she stared at the clear blue skies. "You know, I never actually realized how lonely it was" she admitted. "I've never actually traveled with anyone before...its nice to have someone to talk to."

"You've traveled all by yourself for you entire journey?" Naruto asked in shock. "Why?"

"I guess I never found the right person" Amelia said softly, looking at the blond with a small smile as they continued down the rocky path.

The comfortable silence after that statement was nice. There was no tension between the two, and the rest of the walk towards Cerulean seemed insignificant. Of course, this was before a giant explosion rocked the very earth and nearly sent them to their knees.

"What was that?" Naruto asked as he righted himself.

"I don't know" Amelia said, confused, "But I think it came from this direction" she said hurriedly, taking the blonds arm and dragging him towards the epicenter of the explosion directly ahead of them.

"Um?" Naruto asked, his strides catching up with the charging girls. "Is this a good idea?" he asked somewhat nervously.

"Nope" Amelia said simply. "Probably not"

After a couple tense minutes of walking, along with a few more wild explosions, the two teens finally reached the source of the problem.

It was a Golem and a couple Graveler, they were attacking a couple of much smaller pokemon who had their backs to a rock wall.

One of the pokemon was pink with brown tipped ears and a pink spiraling tail that stood on two legs about two feet high.

The other was even smaller, about one and a half feet tall, was white with what looked like billowing white fabric behind it. It also had a strange green helmet like structure on its head that hid its eyes with pink protrusions sticking up.

"A Clefairy and a Ralts" Naruto heard Amelia whisper under her breath. "What is a Ralts doing all the way out here?" she asked, more to herself than anyone else. "They shouldn't be in the mountains."

"It doesn't matter" Naruto said, interrupting the girls thoughts. "We need to help them."

"Right" Amelia replied, shaking her head and chastising herself for not recognizing the fact that the two pokemon needed help.

"Can you take that Golem?" she asked seriously. She had only seen his Pidgey, if he didn't have a stronger pokemon she would have to do this herself. It wouldn't be a problem for her of course, but she felt her companion had a need to help the pokemon just like she did. The Golem wasn't the strongest pokemon in the world, but flying attacks wouldn't do much good, even Steel Wing.

"I think so" Naruto said, a crease forming on his forehead as he gave it a thought. "I should be okay. We just need to drive them back I take it that mean you want to take on the Gravler."

"Yeah" Amelia replied with a nod. "Ready" she asked, gripping a pokemon and watching as the blond preformed a similar action.

"As I'll ever be" Naruto replied with a smile, pulling out his pokemon.

"Lets get this show on the road then" she said as she ran out into the open, between the hostile pokemon and their victims and tossed out her pokeball. "Sceptile, lay down some cover fire on those Graveler, Bullet Seed."

Following the girl, Naruto too tossed out his pokemon. "Dratini, lets go, target that Golem with Water Pulse."

In a flash of light, the blue dragon and the forest pokemon emerged from their respective pokeballs and launched their attacks.

Amelia could only stare at the blue dragon for a couple seconds. Pokemon like Dratini and were very rare to see and difficult to raise. Most were in the hands of VERY elite trainers. To see one so close truly was a privilege. Blinking, she quickly focused her mind back on the situation at hand as she say the yellow pellets of the Bullet Seed and the orb of the Water Pulse collide with the rock pokemon.

"Follow it up with Razor Leaf" she yelled out as she heard Naruto called out for another Water Pulse.

The attacks once again impacted against the rock pokemon, who were still a bit stunned from the previous attacks. As the dust cleared, they could see the rock pokemon quickly retreating. Apparently, the three pokemon weren't worth the effort of battling the dragon and grass type.

"Good job Dratini" Naruto said with a smile as he returned the dragon to her pokeball. Looking over, he saw Amelia doing the same. "Well...that was interesting" he remarked with a smile.

"Hehe, I suppose" Amelia replied, trying to hold back a grin herself. Luckily, the rather gushy scene was soon interrupted by the appearance of the two small pokemon.

"Clefairy" the pink one spoke up, lifting one of its fingers into the air with a happy smile as the Ralts hung back behind it shyly. "Clef Clefairy."

"Ummm...I think its saying thank you." Naruto said dumbly, looking at the pokemon and then back to Amelia who Clefairy was staring at, seemingly transfixed. He was so caught up with this, he didn't notice the glances the Ralts was giving him as well.

"Err, it was nothing, really" Amelia said to the pokemon with a smile, more than a tad uncomfortable with the staring.

"Fariy?" the pink pokemon said, tilting its head at the girl. After a few seconds of more staring, the Clefairy turned to its Ralts companion and starting talking to it.

"Okay..." Naruto said, watching the exchange with a raised eyebrow. "This is kind of weird."

"Tell me about it." Amelia replied, watching the two pokemon conversed with each other. "Any idea what they're talking about?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not a clue" Naruto said, stealthily grasping Dratini's pokeball as he saw the Clefairy and the Ralts come towards them. "But I have a feeling we're going to find out." he added.

Now, this was an unusual situation, both Ralts and Clefairy were famous for being among the most shy of pokemon. It was rare to see them up so close.

"Clefairy, Fairy" the pink pokemon said, going up to Amelia and pointing its finger at her pokeball, then gesturing over to Ralts, then to Naruto's belt the held his own pokeballs.

"I think they want us to...catch them?" Amelia remarked, as much as a question to the pokemon as a statement to Naruto.

"Fairy, Clefairy" the pink pokemon said nodding, agreeing with Amelia's assessment.

"B-but why?" Naruto said, not helping helping himself. It wasn't everyday pokemon decided to just join up with a trainer.

"I think its because they're empathic" Amelia replied, brows furrowed in thought. "Maybe they can sense that we mean no harm and we love pokemon."

"Clefairy" the pink pokemon said, nodding. It then pointed at itself then Amelia, then it pointing at its Ralts companion and pointed at Naruto.

"I take it you want me to capture Ralts then?" Naruto asked, looking at the weird duo of pokemon in slight bewilderment. He didn't think wild pokemon would actually WANT to be captured. I really showed how diverse pokemon could be.

"Ralts" the smaller pokemon said shyly, still trying to hide behind the Clefairy while nodding its head.

Naruto briefly glanced at Amelia, and as their eyes met they both came to the same agreement.

"Okay then" Naruto said with a smile as he reached for an empty pokeball and lightly tossed it at the Ralts as his companion did the same. "Welcome to the team then Ralts."

Naruto:

Dratini

Known moves: Water Pulse, Body Slam.

Pidgey

Known Moves: Gust, Quick Attack, Tackle, Steel Wing

Ralts

Known Moves: N/A

Amelia:

Butterfree

Known Moves: Solarbeam

Sceptile

Known Moves: Bullet Seed, Razor Leaf

**Well, here we go, chapter four. Like I said, Its shorter than I wanted, but I thought I needed to get something out, its been awhile since I updated after all. Here we get the introduction to Amelia, what do you think of her? I'm going to try hard to develop her into her own unique character, but like I said, I've never written an OC before, so it might be a bumpy ride. The chapter didn't really hold much action or anything, but I felt it was a needed part of the story. On the bright side, Naruto catches another pokemon...what awaits him next?**


End file.
